If Dunedin is the House of Pain and Wellington the Cake Tin, Albany's tidy ground on Auckland's northern fringes should be known as the Slaughterhouse of the Islanders.

Five Pacific teams had come here over the previous eight years, conceding a total of 335 points. On this occasion that average of 67 points was reached inside 50 minutes.

That the All Blacks did not quite attain the total lately associated with a Bangladesh first innings could be blamed equally on the decision to replace their first-choice goalkicker Dan Carter at half-time and on the incoherence that overtakes any team which makes multiple substitutions. Superb before the break, the All Blacks lost shape and direction after it, continuing to score tries more out of habit than conviction.

How much this really tells us about the forthcoming Tests against the Lions is hard to tell. The All Blacks' terrifying back line was already well known. The doubts concern their tight forwards and, though Fiji set the odd novel challenge - notably that of scrummaging against the 25 stone of the prop Bill Cavubati - no answers were likely to be found here.

The All Blacks' coach Graham Henry said that, while he could not complain about his team's performance, he would "have been happier with a more demanding contest".

What was presented was a virtuoso opening by Carter, scoring the first try after handing off a massive tackler, angling his kick artfully for the wing Sitiveni Sivivatu to score the third and then flattening the line with a beautifully placed pass that sent the captain Tana Umaga in for the fourth, all in the first 20 minutes. Carter also converted three of them, all from widish angles, and, still only 23 and playing his 18th Test, moved past Jeff Wilson and Christian Cullen to become his country's fourth-highest points scorer of all time.

Fiji's problem on the night was that New Zealand not only are the one team in the world who have the drop on them in pace and dexterity but also had a monopoly of possession. Longer-term difficulties were epitomised by the sight of Sivivatu, one of their own, scoring four tries on his All Black debut.

While they lose their best talent to New Zealand impoverished Fiji and the other Pacific teams will remain makeweights rather than real contenders. This is certain to continue while the rich southern unions go on excluding them from the lucrative Super 12 competition, a betrayal when the competition was created a decade ago, compounded by failure to bring them in when it becomes the Super 14 next year.

Doug Howlett also moved into fourth place in the All Black's try standings, the wing's two touchdowns taking him past John Kirwan to 36 from 46 internationals. The prop Greg Somerville claimed his first try in his 42nd Test.

New Zealand had reached their half-century by the break and the second half was of interest only to statisticians - the crowd expressing their boredom with the all-too-predictable Mexican wave. It became genuinely animated only when the Fijians at last broke out of defence in the final quarter and for the only time threatened to cross the All Black line.